


Faunus!Oobleck au

by portbleck



Category: RWBY
Genre: Fantastical Racism, Faunus AU, Gen, M/M, hummingbird!oobleck, idk if portbleck is gonna be heavy in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-02-28 20:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2745932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/portbleck/pseuds/portbleck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oobleck is a hummingbird faunus, CRDL are racist so he sets up a culture group for faunus. (I'm sorry I just really like Oobleck)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Team CRDL are arseholes

Bartholomew Oobleck wasn’t pleased. This was disgraceful, even for team CRDL. 

Written in a childish scrawl, etched into his chalkboard were the words ‘Send animals to the zoo’. The message was accompanied by a vulgar doodle of Velvet Scarletina, shown with torn ears, sitting in a cage.

The boys who were supposed to be in detention could be heard laughing on the stage of the lecture theatre from the back of the room where the Doctor entered, drawing the stack of papers he’d just been out to get close to his chest and feeling the beginnings of indignant, heavy rage climb tremulously through his chest, up his spine and through his skull.

As the door slammed shut behind him, the team stopped abruptly and their Captain whipped around to see their teacher stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the blackboard. Cardin Winchester gulped, Russel Thrush gasped, Dove Bronzewing froze and Sky Lark dropped the board eraser to the floor. 

“You- you, ignorant, cruel, vapid _children._ ” 

Oobleck choked on the words, humid anger muting him into a staggered, rare silence.

“How _dare_ you?” He forced out slowly, nose wrinkling in disgust. “That is your _classmate_ , your _peer!_ ”

“P-Professor Oobleck, w-we didn’t mean to-“

“Doctor! Doctor Oobleck! I have a PhD! And do you know how _hard_ I had to work for it?!” Oobleck’s voice cracked, finally breaking through his seething quiet “I was nearly forced out of that college, so many times, by arrogant, vile, little racists like you!”

The stacks of papers were flung to one side, hackles raised and fists clenched by his sides, tail feathers fluffed and fanned out behind him as if to intimidate. His pupils were left dumbfounded at this outburst from a man so usually matter of fact and collected, if energetic and unpredictable. Cardin started to splutter as the man marched toward him, taking several steps at a time with his long, slender legs. 

The rest of team CRDL stepped away from their leader as he was approached by his teacher, glasses shirked on his descent and furious eyes boring into Cardin’s.

The offending pupil was pressed up against the desk by the towering figure of his teacher, legs buckling as Oobleck lent foward to stare into his eyes. 

“You so much as set a foot near Ms Scarletina, or any other faunus pupil, and you will be dearly sorry. I may not hold the same aggressive persuasions as the White Fang, but one talk with Professor Ozpin and you’ll find your academic experience to be quite unpleasant.”

Doctor Oobleck looked up.

“That goes for the lot of you.” Bartholomew announced as he violently snapped his gaze from Dove, to Russel, to Sky before narrowing in on Cardin Winchester again. “Do you understand?”

The teenage boy, bravado deflated and hesitant to get relief from his teacher’s piercing gaze, nodded meekly.

“Good.” The Doctor turned quickly and began up the steps, the boys behind him exhaling as they saw him slip on his glasses and seeing his dark, iridescent plumage sweep and sway rapidly away. “Oh, and students?”

They lashed their drooping heads to attention.

“As an exercise of empathy, I’m setting you an essay on discrimination of fauna in academia on my desk for next lesson. Normally I would recommend talking to, and meeting other fauna to overcome this prejudice, but as of right now, I wouldn’t trust you within twelve feet of any of my comrades. Expect a revised and _separate_ detention shortly. Goodnight!”  
__________________________________________________________________________________

 

Glynda coolly glanced up from her transcripts as the door of the teacher’s lounge made an echoing bang open. But upon seeing who had entered, and the obvious state they were in, her eyes widened ever so slightly and she made to stand. 

“Bart?” she paused “What happened?”

He started up at his former teammate’s voice, “Nothing, nothing, nothing Glynda. I’m fine. You know how it is! Kids getting up to all sorts of mischief, but no I’m right as rain.” He clapped his hands together to signify a change in conversation. “Alright then, better get on with some marking, nearly ready for the Vytal festival, I just need to make some changes to my planner. See you, goodbye!”

He had just turned to leave when he heard a loud crack behind him. 

“You listen to me Bartholomew Theodor Oobleck.” Bartholomew gingerly turned to see Glynda, riding crop resting in the palm of her hand, glaring at him. “Something is very clearly wrong. You’ll tell me what it is or I’ll get Peter down here right now.”

“What? No! He’ll just blow this out of proportion! I’m fine Glynda. Honestly.”

“Bart…” Goodwitch was always good at pressing people for information. Her icy silence, glinting with an hint of steel had always put him on edge, even as a teenager. Clearly, it was still as potent.

“Please- just- just don’t tell him. I don’t want him worried.” He sighed and pinched his brow, “You know Cardin Winchester.”

“Unfortunately, yes...” she slowed as if to prompt him.

“Well, he and his team recently did something rather racist.”

“What?!”

“They- they wrote “send the animals to the zoo” in reference to Velvet Scarletina.” Bartholomew removed his glasses and rubbed his eyelids, hunching slightly “I knew they weren’t the most savoury characters, but to imply something like that… I am _supposed_ to represent fauna in this school, but I’m not respected to the point where my pupils would write something like _that_ in my own _classroom?!”_

Glynda stood there shocked at her peer, his hurt in this situation and her own failure to detect such a thing. 

“And then it occurred to me; all the times Velvet has meekly tried to answer in class but shies away after glancing over to him, the flinching from Cardin, how she always seems on the verge of confessing her qualms to me until she catches sight of team CRDL. She is being bullied, tormented, abused. And I had no idea! What kind of teacher am I?!"

Feeling awkward in this emotionally tumultuous time, she gently placed her hand on his shoulder, until he flinched away and made an attempt straightening out.

“No, I can’t- I just can’t,” he sniffed “I need to _do_ something about this.”

And with that, he gave his second dramatic exit of the day, and went about planning for change.


	2. Proposition, Exposition and a little bit of Fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oobleck tries to set the plan in motion, then does some reminiscing. (i think blake will be in the next chapter)

Velvet sat alone in the crowded hall, plates clinking with asinine, childish chatter buzzing around her. Coco and Fox weren't with her, as the Vytal festival meant that many of the spectators and tourists who flocked towards these events were family members, so they’d been spending a lot of time with brothers and sisters and parents, maybe the odd war-torn veteran for an aged Uncle or Aunt. Normally Velvet would be fine with this, as she understood that family were scarcely seen at Beacon, but Yatsuhashi wasn't there either, due to an accidental ground-pound during a tournament that had cracked the floor. Being the gentleman he was, he offered to help fix it and had sent a quick message to Velvet’s scroll explaining why he couldn't be with her for lunch, as well as a quick, yet sincere, apology.

So that just left Velvet.

Alone.

Though tense and wary for an attack from a certain group of bullies, she didn’t expect the harsh clap on the shoulder from behind her. She flinched and squeaked, pivoting in her seat to see her assailant. 

“Sorry, sorry my dear girl, didn’t mean to frighten you!” cawed a familiar babbling tone.

“Doctor Oobleck?” sighed Velvet in relief

“Yes, yes. Sorry about that nasty shock Velvet. I just had a question to ask, that’s all.” 

“Oh ok, Sir. What was this question?”

There was a slight pause from the Faunus before answering; “You see- um- yes, you see I’ve been a little concerned about you- um something things involving you- um, I mean: don’t worry you aren’t in trouble!”

“Alright Sir, that’s, good to know?” Velvet had become more and more quizzical with every string of assurances and questions projecting from a teacher who usually commanded such direct speech.

“-what I’m trying to say is that…” he sighed and dropped on to the seat opposite her. “I know about Cardin Winchester.”

She had to fight her hand going to her mouth when she heard. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She forced out, steeling herself to look in a straight direction away from her teacher’s opaque, yet evident stare.

“Velvet, please, the issue has already been taken care of, due his general disregard for Fauna, not just because of his actions towards you.” Upon seeing her ears droop considerably, Oobleck softened, he hunched slightly and leant toward her “I just wanted to see if you’re alright.”

“I’m fine. A little tense, if anything. But, no, I’ll be ok.” 

“That’s reassuring to hear Velvet, though I had something else to ask of you.” Velvet hummed as if to prompt him and Oobleck cleared his throat.

“It is my firm belief that knowledge is a means for overcoming the harshness and fear in the world. Racism towards us Fauna, though historically built on a capitalist need for a subservient workforce, can be overcome, in part at least, through awareness of Fauna and our history. Prejudice is rife throughout it, but our history must be heard. I have a proposition for you Velvet.”

She blinked at her teacher who had been flittering about violently as he conveyed his message.

“Will you help me set up a Faunus culture club?”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“And she said no?!” 

“Peter, you’ve made this out to be something far larger than it actually is.” 

“I just don’t understand why!”

“ _That’s_ because you’re not a Faunus.”

Professor Port just resumed grumbling at a quieter pace on his walk to their kitchen.

Oobleck knew why she’d turned down his offer, at her age; he’d have done the same thing. Being a Faunus was a mixed bag, there was a time and a place for revolution, but you needed to know when to lay low. Broadcasting your heritage was always dangerous, and though he was a passionate activist now, he did everything he could to mask or mute his fluttering feathers in middle school. Too many of his Faunus friends had been assaulted by human peers, images of tails in casts and mutilated ears still haunted him, but when he got to Beacon it had been a whole new world.

He’d been so scared of what would happen at the academy; stronger bullies, same ideology. But he’d been so wrong. Most of the kids there had the same sense of justice as he did, and those that didn’t were a small minority. It was leaving to go to college that really threw him, the racism returned as he entered into the stuck-up world of academia. That’s why Velvet’s bullying had troubled him deeply; he never wanted his safe place tarnished.

“Tea, love?” he heard his chipper boyfriend echo from the kitchen.

“Just a coffee thanks!” he called before slipping back into his own thoughts.

So yes, he could understand why Velvet shot the idea down. Not to mention the fact that many Fauna didn’t know all that much about their culture anyway. Some, like Velvet, were adopted by human families. All they knew about their history was the grossly biased drivel taught in elementary school. Others were born into the White Fang, falling into a life of obedience to unseen superiors. Either that or severing ties and starting afresh, though no one had heard about a case like that for years. Usually the White Fang turned from Den Mother to Rabid Dog when betrayal happened, leaking a profile to authorities and essentially ordering a mark on the backstabber’s head. Naturally, that led to profiling after a sketchy report of “Female, Cat Faunus” which usually resulted in an increase in racially motivated assault.

Faunus who managed to remain outside of the White Fang often lived in villages or districts that were exclusively and densely populated by Fauna. It was by no means voluntary segregation, but that just seemed the way things worked. Oobleck had grown up in one such town, his parents both proud bird Fauna, surrounded by Fauna of all creeds. It was a hub of culture and influence, coxing him into a life of study and later on, a passion to become a hunter, which came from a need to protect as well as teach and learn.

His partner trotted into the room and gestured for him to move up on the couch, which he did only slightly, so they were pressed up together. Port handed him his coffee and the two nestled a little, sipping and basking in each other’s company.

“Sorry for making a scene earlier,” he muttered uncharacteristically gently.

“That’s ok,” Oobeck responded “I’ve just been a bit on edge recently.”

“What, with that Winchester lad?”

“What?!” he squawked, then withdrew petulantly “Was it Goodwitch?” Port hummed in confirmation “Just- don’t worry it’s sorted out.”

“The only thing I’m concerned with is how strung out you’ve been getting.” Port slung an arm around his boyfriend “I know you’ve found this whole ordeal difficult and if there’s any way I can help I’d be glad to-“

“Actually that’s not a bad idea,” Interrupted Oobleck “do you think you could talk to your class about the club?” 

“But of course!” Port replied with a grin, happy to be of service to his gloomy partner.

“Just tell anyone with an interest to drop by; I’ll probably need a fellow Faunus organiser though.”

“Then it’s settled, we’ll just advertise it and if that takes off we can get the rest of the faculty involved!”

“Oh well I don’t know about tha-“

“Oh hush dear. I think it’s time for that hunting programme of mine!”

Oobleck quietened as the TV was turned on, smiling to himself about how domestic the scene was. The phrase ‘old married couple’ came to mind before he settled into the crook of Port’s neck and started to drift off.


End file.
